Quotes About Biology

We are well on our way to a unified theory of biology that will merge body and environment, brain and mind, genome and microbiome.

the cerebral cortex that has grown enormously over the last few millennia, overshadowing the ancient, instinctive lower brain.

Todas las experiencias se convierten en una señal química codificada que alterará la vida de tus células, ya sea mucho o poco, durante unos minutos o durante varios años.

You continually recycle your material body—almost all of it—once a year (stomach lining every five days; skin once a month; skeleton every three months; liver every six weeks; genetic material every six weeks).

Como especie, deberíamos tomarnos un rato cada día para dar gracias por ese asombroso órgano que funciona en el interior de nuestra cabeza.

Tu cerebro contiene alrededor de cien mil millones de células nerviosas que establecen un billón, o quizá incluso un trillón, de conexiones llamadas sinapsis. Estas conexiones están en un constante estado de remodelación dinámica en respuesta al mundo que te rodea. Son una minúscula, pero estupenda, maravilla de la naturaleza.

El proceso del carbono y del oxígeno, esenciales para el crecimiento de organismos biológicos, requirió y requiere muchas coincidencias desde el momento del Big Bang. El hecho de que tú y yo existamos, y que el Universo, las estrellas, las galaxias y los planetas existan, ¡es un suceso muy improbable! ¡Una absoluta coincidencia! Un milagro que se remonta al principio del tiempo.

La idea de que el sueño puede acortarse es un mito. Desde la perspectiva del cerebro, dormir seis horas a la semana es una pérdida permanente. No se puede compensar durmiendo el fin de semana. Levantarse con la alarma de un despertador también es perjudicial. En condiciones naturales, el cerebro sale del sueño profundo en una serie de oleadas que lo llevan cada vez más cerca de la vigilia.

During sexual activity, oxytocin rises in women, making them bond with their sexual partners emotionally, but the effect doesn't seem to happen in men. Something strange

up to five hundred genes change their output when a person makes positive lifestyle changes, such as improved diet, moderate exercise, meditation, and stress management.

Todos hemos crecido con la idea de que una vez que perdemos las células cerebrales, estas desaparecen para siempre y no son sustituidas jamás. (En nuestra adolescencia, esta advertencia era una parte fundamental de la reprimenda paterna sobre los peligros del alcohol).

Quite soon, as we move from genes to the proteins that they code for, and then on to the interactions between these proteins, the problems become seriously complicated.

Much contemporary popular writing on genetics assumes that it should be possible to reconstruct living systems from the bottom up, starting with the raw DNA code. And that is precisely the sort of procedure we have just seen to be so entirely impracticable. Clearly, we need first to narrow the options. And there is only one way to do that; we must observe how nature itself has narrowed the options.

For some reason, the evolutionists have not come up with an evolution-based explanation for why human beings react so powerfully to music. But surely they will.

Biological knowledge is doubling every five years.

No knowledge can be more satisfactory to a man than that of his own frame, its parts, their functions and actions.

The knowledge we have of communication among cells does not permit my giving you a sophisticated understanding.

You cannot insert a gene you took from a bacteria into a seed and call it LIFE. You have not created life, instead you have only polluted it.

Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind.

There are a lot of downsides to being male. We age faster and die younger. But give us this: we're lifetime baby-making machines. Women's reproductive abilities start to wane when they're as young as 35. Men? We're good to go pretty much till we're dead.

I love this idea, that nature dreamed up the same kind of sleep in both humans and birds, fostering the growth of big brains in creatures so far apart on life's tree.

If a bird's hair cells are damaged by disease or loud noises—say, by the blasting decibels of a rock concert in a domed stadium—they can regenerate. Ours can't.)

A frigate bird with a seven-foot wingspan has a skeleton that weighs less than its feathers.

MIGRATION IS ANOTHER TRADE-OFF. Birds that migrate have smaller brains than their sedentary relatives. This makes sense, as a brain that consumes a lot of energy and develops slowly would be too costly for birds that travel a lot.